


Candid Cal

by Babyuknow13



Series: The Future Professor [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Friends to family, Future Pokemon Professor, Gen, Side-Story, The Road to Becoming a Pokemon Professor, Time Travel, True Companions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:14:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24110380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babyuknow13/pseuds/Babyuknow13
Summary: Alternative POVs, snippets, drabbles, and more! All from the C.E.Y.O. story line!
Series: The Future Professor [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1739611
Comments: 12
Kudos: 90





	1. Shy Sister

They could’ve handled that better.

Brock withheld a wince and ran a hand over his hair. The whole scene was already replaying inside his head, complete with annotations for every point where he could’ve stopped things from escalating.

It was just…That was one of his little sisters walking around with stitches and he hadn’t _known._

Worse, it was the _shy_ sister. The little bookworm who’d taken weeks to become really comfortable with all of them and who held his hand in crowded areas so she could bury her nose in her notes. The one who watched on the sidelines with him when the other two got into their usual petty arguments and was just as much a big sister of the group as he was a big brother. The one without anyone else to look after her.

 _That_ sister. With stitches up high on her shoulder and he hadn’t known.

No, he wouldn’t let himself get away with that. He’d been _purposely_ ignorant. He could _still_ remember the blood pouring into her clothes. He didn’t know how much blood a human could safely lose but anything more than a _drop_ was too much from any of _his_ siblings.

“We made her mad.” Surprisingly, Ash was the one to realize it first.

Well, maybe not surprising. Ash and Cal were probably the closest in the group and he could be impressively intuitive when it came to pokemon and emotions.

“She should’ve _told_ us!” Misty crossed her arms petulantly.

“Be that as it may,” Because yes, Cal _should have._ “We went about it the wrong way. She wasn’t _purposely_ trying to hide it.” He considered it thoughtfully for a moment. “Actually, I’d bet she thought we _knew_ about the stitches already.”

“What? But how could we?” Misty’s eyes widened.

“Well, we _did_ see it happen. We saw her get hurt and then she left with Koga and came back a few minutes later with different clothes and some bandages.” He reminded them. “Considering we were there for it, she must have thought we already knew. I know _I’m_ kicking myself for not realizing. It should’ve been obvious with how much…” He drifted off, not wanting to say it. At least Misty looked a little less hostile now.

He wondered if he should be grateful or not for the practice in mediating relationships between kids going through puberty. His other siblings would hit that milestone eventually.

“So Cal thought we already knew,” Ash tilted his head to the side, an action copied by Pikachu half a second later. He tilted it to the other side, “And us getting upset like that….she must’ve thought we were mad at her.”

“We _are_ mad!” Misty looked between them, suddenly worried. “Aren’t we? I mean,”

He folded his arms over the table and heaved a sigh. No, he didn’t think any of them were really mad at Cal. Upset that she’d hidden how bad an injury was, knowingly or not, but not mad. _Concerned_ was a better word for it.

Cal didn’t think stitches were serious. It wasn’t just that she thought they already knew; She didn’t think stitches were _‘that bad.’_

If he forced himself to be neutral, he could admit she was right. Stitches _weren’t_ all that bad.

…She never got that head wound looked at after the St. Anne thing.

With a groan he let his forehead hit the table. He was _fifteen_ and a Gym Leader for _four_ years. He was the _adult_ of the group. _How_ did he manage to forget the _head injury_ one of his best friends got when they almost died!?

“Brock?” He felt…either Ash or Pikachu poking him in the shoulder. Hard to tell.

He was the adult, he was supposed to be _responsible_ for these kids. He was supposed to make sure they had enough to eat, didn’t get sick, didn’t get preyed on by any of the sickos out there. And he was happy to do all that because it also meant he was _here_ , on a wild and crazy pokemon journey. Not at home shuffling nine siblings, gym leader responsibilities, finances, chores, and the hundreds of other tasks that never ended in a bustling household.

Great _Groudon,_ and here he was feeling sorry for himself when one of his best friends was at the hospital getting stitches removed.

“Right then!” He startled the other two—sorry, _three_ —by bolting upright. “We need to think of a way to apologize to Cal.”

“We could get her a new jacket.” Ash immediately piped up.

“A jacket? Why a jacket?” Misty looked at him, bewildered.

“Haven’t you noticed she hasn’t worn her old one since she got hurt? I don’t think she even has it anymore.” He pointed out. “And she’s always worn a jacket ever since we met. She gets cold easy.”

“That’s…Okay, so we get her a jacket.” Misty shook her head.

Brock marveled at the way Ash and Cal just seemed to _know_ each other. Cal was always confident and encouraging about Ash’s training and goals and Ash always knew how to draw Cal out of her shell and understand the things she _didn’t_ say.

“A jacket is a good start.” He took a steadying breath. “But we should probably try to find one like what she used to have to make sure she likes it.”

“You know, I just thought of something!” Misty announced with a bright grin. A bright grin quickly replaced by a scowl when Ash opened his mouth.

“Congratulations.”

Brock dropped his head into his hand to hide the snort he almost let out. Pikachu decided it wasn’t safe to be sitting between them anymore and relocated himself to Brock’s shoulder to watch. Once he was sure he had a straight face again he slapped his palm on the table to get their attention.

“Break it up, you two. Misty, what was your idea?” They reluctantly separated again.

“There’s one thing absolutely guaranteed to make Cal happy as a clam, remember?” She held up a finger. “ _Studying pokemon!_ Remember? Her _dream?_ I say we call Professor Oak and see if he can send along some notes or something new for her to study.”

“Huh, that’s actually not a bad idea.” Ash blinked.

“That’s perfect.” He stood up, careful not to dislodge Pikachu from his shoulder. “Let’s get started!”


	2. Cool New Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ash's POV, day 2!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My life has been a burning trainwreck for the past year but hey, things are quiet-ish now. Maybe I can try writing again? Maybe I can have fun sometimes? I can afford to pay internet bills again. That's good. Have a new chapter of Candid Cal and maybe week after next I can update CEYO? Not this weekend because Super Bowl and I've already made plans. But the weekend after that maybe?
> 
> Thank you all for sticking with me. Here's some pov from Ash! Hope you like it!

Two days after leaving Pallet Town.

It looked like Cal was going to keep traveling with him and Pikachu. Misty too but she was just doing it for her bike and she was kind of a pain. Cal was nice and really smart and hadn’t called him stupid even once.

She seemed kind of down when he and Misty were arguing with each other. He thought maybe she was annoyed by it, and she sort of was, but sometimes he looked back and her eyes would be far away. He could just tell she was thinking of something bad.

She cheered up when she got to tell them things about pokemon. Things like what Types did well against Caterpie and what Types Caterpie could totally beat. Too bad none of those Dark types lived in Kanto. Maybe a foreign Trainer would have a Dark type? That’d be awesome.

It was kind of weird how different she’d been yesterday when it was just the two of them though. She hadn’t stuttered at all when she was talking to him and she hadn’t been shy when those bad guys attacked the Pokemon Center.

Then the fight was over and she barely said two words to Nurse Joy or Officer Jenny. And when they’d left Viridian city she’d been quiet, hardly speaking above a whisper while he and Misty argued.

Then she’d fought Spearow.

She wasn’t as scared and angry as she’d been last night during the attack, but she was confident here. Like she knew what she was doing. And she _really_ did! It was awesome! She and Char were totally in sync! They were like BAM! And FWOOSH! And they won and Spearow even seemed happy about it!

And through it all Cal was confident. She was even smiling a little, eyes bright and alive. Her whole heart was steady and burned even brighter than Charmander’s! And Charmander started burning brighter too as the battle went on, especially at the end when they won!

“Wow, it’s like she’s a totally different person.” His eyes were probably shining and he didn’t care. It was so cool to watch a battle in person like that instead of on a screen. Watching battles on tv was great but he’d had no idea there was so much _emotion_ thrown around when it was live!

“Totally confident when it comes to pokemon and battles, totally shy otherwise.” Misty agreed.

“I-I wasn’t…” She stopped, almost flinching. But not like she was scared this was more like a… _ashamed_ flinch. He’d never seen someone flinch from shame before.

What on Earth did Cal have to be ashamed of? That fight was awesome!

“Oops, now she’s back to shy again!” Misty laughed, but it was a nice, teasing one and not a mean, mocking one. “Ignore us, just keep treating your pokemon.”

“Mmm.” Cal pouted, turning back to keep spraying a potion on Spearow’s scratches.

Mom said he’d make lots of friends on his Journey. He didn’t think it would happen so fast.


End file.
